Game Review of PhoneFraze

PhoneFraze is a free application on the Android Market that also has two pay versions. They advertise the game as The party game similar to CatchPhrase or Taboo (but with more features and modes!) * and at this point I cannot disagree with that assessment at all. While there is a free version, there are also two more that you can upgrade to if you like what you are seeing when playing. The three total versions are PhoneFraze Free, PhoneFraze University Edition, and PhoneFraze Pro.

What is the difference between the three versions, and how much will each version run my pockets?

PhoneFraze FreeThis version has most of the functionality, but a smaller word list with only one available category.

PhoneFraze University Edition $1.49University Edition has a college word list theme, and allows the user to download and play many of the other FREE theme packs off of the market. The game play buttons are twice as large as the free version.

PhoneFraze Pro $3.99The Pro version comes loaded with thousands of phrases with many categories and also allows the user to download some theme packs that the university edition can access. The game play buttons are twice as large as the free version.How do you play? What are the rules?

Three or more players get in a circle

Each Person describes or gestures the phrase on the screen (no rhyming or spelling)

If the phrase is too hard, press New Word

After phrase is guessed correctly, pass the phone

The next person presses Got It and play continues

Round ends when the buzzer sounds!

There are 3 Game Modes:

Scoring:

Basic the person left holding the phone loses!

Scramble the team NOT holding the phone at buzzer gets a point

Heads Up 1 Point per correct phrase to the heads up team

At the end of a round, the game will automatically score, however scores can be modified.
Advanced Scoring:

If the other team guesses the phrase that their opponents were trying to get after the buzzer sounds they earn 3 points!

If someone spells, rhymes, or says the phrase then they lose a point for their team

If someone skips a word during play, then they lose a point for their team

What are the Theme Packs? What do they do, and how much do they cost?

The Theme Packs are free add-ons to the two pay versions of PhoneFraze. If, for example, you purchased PhoneFraze Pro, you could then download and install the ProFootball Pack which adds Football phrases and other Football related words. If you have one of the pay versions, you might as well get a theme pack though, as they are completely free of charge. If you try to download the theme pack without having a pay version, it will prompt you back to the Android Market for you to make a purchase.

What does the Android Market tell me about these applications?

On the free version it lists that 10,000-50,000 people have downloaded it but only 51 ratings. There was just one comment that said sucks literally, and rated it one star, but the rest seemed to be real ratings for the most part. There was one user who was mad about something that happened on Facebook and took it out on the application rating.
On the University Edition for $1.49 it seems like people arent all that interested in it just yet. It has less than fifty downloads and only two ratings, but both of them are five star ratings. This could also be because of the thought process that if you are going to pay $1.49 for this version, you might as well just go up to the $3.99 version.

The Pro version has 100-500 downloads and just seven ratings. Six of these were five stars and the only three star rating was saying the music sucks, which they have since created a way for us to upload our own music into the game.

On the Theme Pack Add-ons it seems that most people, if not all, rated them five stars. The few who did not clearly did not understand that these were add-ons to applications, and not stand-alone-applications.

What can you tell me about your personal experience using this application?

I had a blast testing this game and I hope that more games take notice of the polish involved. These developers definitely took the time to do this right, the first time. Something I also wish that most developers would follow with is that this game will pause and silence itself if you have a phone call interrupt your play, and then it will pick itself back up right where you left off as soon as the call is over. It doesnt seem like a huge deal but the overall convenience of the application doing this on its own is nice. It was one of those oh that is pretty cool moments that ends because you remember that you are in the middle of the game and losing time! At the end of the day, it is so much more convenient to carry your phone to a friends house to play a game than it is an entire box. With the box you also have to worry about losing cards or pieces or a board. I honestly cant think of a reason that having a game box with me would be more convenient than just using my phone other than not having to worry about batteries.

Are there any other drawbacks or reasons to make me think twice about purchasing?

To tell the truth, if you are purchasing this application knowing what game it intends to mimic and then expand upon, then there is absolutely no reason at all that you should need a refund or become disappointed. It has unlimited potential in terms or words and phrases as all they need to do is push out an update every time they add a chunk to either, whereas the board game has to release a new edition you would have to pay for to get new words and phrases. The game is basically without any bug or glitch that I could find during my testing with it and I am happy to announce that my family and I had a blast testing the game over twelve hours of actual play time.

Verdict!

At the end of the day I firmly believe that this application is well worth the money. I was sent this .apk of the pay version, PhoneFraze Pro, to fully review with no bias with only one catch. I was asked if I found any bugs in the application, that I would notify them and allow them to knock it out before they get blasted for a bug or glitch publicly. I am proud to say that after spending seven days and about sixteen hours playing their game that I could not report back any sighting or bugs. I had no force closes or anything that would impede my ability to get enjoyment out of this game.

Out of a possible 10 points, I am pleased to award PhoneFraze Pro a magnificent 9.25 out of 10 stars. It is basically without flaw. The harsh critic in me can only knock this game by saying I wish there were more phrases or words to use. During the entire time I played with my family I only came across the same phrase once, and the same word I think two times. It is very picky of me to knock it for that and it is an issue that is easily solved as they have unlimited potential for words and phrases and themes to be added into their game.

Thank you for your time and I hope you find this review useful in deciding to purchase or stay away from this application.

You can PM me here, mail me at my email address, or post in these threads suggestions for new application or game reviews. Also, if you have any feedback, feel free to post such here.

I will likely be posting one review of an app or game per week unless this starts to pick up a bit more, but I do this in my spare time, but I also work full time and am expecting to become a father in the next 2-4 weeks. Thank you for your time.